Putin Envoy Urges End To Public Spat Over Chechen-Ingush Border

Russian Presidential envoy for the North Caucasus region Aleksandr Khloponin

Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the region has urged the leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia to put an end to their public dispute over the administrative border between Russia's two North Caucasus republics.

Speaking in the city of Pyatigorsk on September 7, Aleksandr Khloponin urged the two leaders to "stop insulting each other in public," saying the issue should first be discussed by experts.

The leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia, Ramzan Kadyrov and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, were involved in a public dispute recently after Kadyrov said that Ingushetia's district of Sunzha and parts of its Malgobek district were "indigenous Chechen territories."

They also accused one another of not doing enough to prevent cross-border terrorist attacks by militants.

Until 1992, the two republics formed a single entity, the Republic of Checheno-Ingushetia.

Based on reporting by RIA-Novosti and Interfax